This Teacher Made Her Students A Tiny Target With Shopping Carts, Starbucks & More

Ah, Target. There's nothing quite like strolling through the aisles of the beloved superstore with a venti pumpkin spiced latte in hand, is there? No, there's not. And, hey, if you can't spend your whole day there — I mean, we all gotta work to afford those shopping sprees, right? — you can recreate the magic, like one teacher whose Target-inspired classroom features all of the elements you (and your kids) love about the shopping experience.

Nashville teacher Theresa Yarber has designed the ultimately "play space" for her preschool classroom, called "Bullseye Playground." Obviously inspired by her love for Target, Yarber explained to Target's A Bullseye View that her goal "as a teacher is to have the kids say they can’t wait to get to school because it’s so fun." She added, "I knew this would be a great place to start... I love Target and the kids love Target." Who doesn't?

Yarber pulled out all the stops to make her classroom a tiny Target replica. There are, of course, little red shopping carts with the Target logo on the side, Starbucks coffee cups, a price scanner, red Target team member shirts, as well as a "dollar spot" bins filled with blocks and toys.

And, unsurprisingly, Yarber's play area is a hit with her preschoolers. "A little girl put her dog in the cart, walked through the dollar bins with her grande latte and I was like, 'Are you doing some shopping?' and she said, 'No, I’m just browsing.' And that’s when it really came alive," Yarber shared with Target. "Kids, imagination and a couple of everyday things. That’s all you need."

Yarber first shared images of her classroom on a Facebook page for fellow teachers back in September, according to ABC News, and they went incredibly viral. Last month, Yarber shared with Good Morning America that her old classroom was feeling "stale" and she wanted to spruce it a bit with a more modern spin to inspire "dramatic play," which is also referred to as pretend play, according to Rasmussen College.

Enter: Target. And Yarber told Good Morning America that it works; her students "mimic their parents" as they "push the shopping cart around and hold a cup of coffee."

Although playing pretend with friends at a tiny classroom Target may seem like just a typical thing kids do, it's actually very important for childhood development. According to Scholastic, pretend play "nurtures" children's imaginations and helps kids build social, emotional, thinking, and language skills.

Because keeping things new and exciting is important for enabling dramatic play, Yarber shared with Good Morning America that she's changed up the creative learning space to another seasonal idea: a pumpkin patch!

In addition to a wheelbarrow, tiny scarecrows, and little hay bales, Yarber's pumpkin patch play area, photos of which she shared with Target, also features a mini cash register. How else will the kids buy their gourds and hot cider?

Between Target shopping carts and other festive themes, Yarber's students are definitely lucky that their teacher puts so much fun thought and creativity into their learning experience.